Here now my last comments on the TUG conference in Tokyo. As it was my honor to close the conference I want to convey the same thoughts I tried to express during the closing address. Let us start with the hard facts: 141 active participants (at least), 35 interesting and funny talks, an excursion full of experiences, and not to forget the long chats during breaks, dinner, at any free time. It might be one of the best visited TUG conferences ever. I have only been at TUG 2012 in Boston, and only checked a few of the former conferences, but thanks to the huge interest in the Japanese TeX community the number of participants exceeded all our expectations.

But not only the number of participants, also the number of presentations – 35, some of them 1.5h tutorials – made for long and dense days. And in spite of these challenging schedule, most participants attended practically all the talks, even when we finished around 8pm. The variety of talks was not less than at any other TeX conference, something I really appreciate, one gets never bored.

Conference Dinner

After all the formal talks and greetings we changed over to another event, the conference dinner. Our excellent guide during the evening, Hayumi Ase, lead us through a program of speeches by Nelson Beebe, various toasts by Shinsaku Fujita, greetings from Haruhiko Okumura as the chair of the organizing committee, as well as a closing message by Barbara Beeton. All accompanied by excellent food and lots of drinks. Even after the Sambon-jime led by Yusuke Kuroki the drinking and partying continued until we had to leave the dinner location. A memorable conference dinner for a memorable conference!

At the end

It was the first time that the TUG conference came to Japan, and I remember well the first reaction of my Japanese colleagues to this proposal: “The Japanese side is not ready for this.” I think the conference showed all of us, the guests as well as the hosts, that the Japanese TeX users are very well prepared. In this sense my gratitude goes to all the Japanese TeX Users, and the Organizing Committee, the excellent lecturers and tutorial speakers, and all the participants.

My hope – and my feeling tells me I am not completely wrong – is that every participant could take home some great idea, some new knowledge, something that will improve, extend, diversify our TeX experience in the long run. For my side, this is definitely the case.